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july 13, 2016 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

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politics \ p4

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education \ p9

SNAP HAPPY

With its itinerant outlook, Convoi in Antwerp is a shopping centre with a difference

Meet the assistance dogs transforming lives through loyal companionship and clever training

Bozar’s biennial Summer of Photography is back, exploring city life and urban vibes

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Clean sweep

art & living \ p10

© Courtesy Barry Sandland

A group of Brussels residents are on a mission to clean their streets once and for all Bartosz Brzezinski More articles by Bartosz \ flanderstoday.eu

Brussels has a problem with rubbish, but residents in Molenbeek are taking matters into their own hands to make their corner of the city cleaner and greener.

Authorities in Schaarbeek are chipping away at the issue, too.

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ipping his morning coffee at the Barbeton cafe just across the canal from Molenbeek, Barry Sandland makes no claim that he’s on a crusade to clean up his Brussels neighbourhood.

“I ride a bicycle, and I don’t have a car, but I’m not rabid,” says the 50-something Canadian, who moved here from Toronto in 1999. “I think I’ve just always been on the green side of things. Grow flowers, keep your street clean, recycle

stuff, don’t buy what you can’t afford; I’m that kind of guy.

The garden is just something to keep me busy.”

That garden occupies an empty parcel of land in Finstraat, opposite the loft where he lives. “It was an old car park, and the owners couldn’t run it anymore,” he says, “so it became an abandoned lot.” Broken fridges, kitchen cabinets and tables also littered the ground.

Sandland asked the owners if he could take a metre alongside the fence to plant a garden. “They basically told me to do whatever I wanted.”

He dug a trench, bought some soil and started growing roses, tulips and daffodils. “Now the people who live there, instead of seeing piles of garbage and debris, they see a garden.”

Two years on, the plot has also given him the opportunity to get to know his neighbours. “The lady who lives next door offered to take some of the garbage away, and I thought, ‘I love you, this is fantastic’. One day I was working there and a guy came up and offered me a bottle of water. Then a little kid came with a silver tray and a teapot on it, and I had Moroccan tea for lunch.”

The narrow strip of flowers isn’t the only one in the area.

Down the street another neighbour runs an even more impressive plot with statues and murals, and Finstraat has its very own informal garden society.

Despite his unwavering optimism, however, Sandland is under no illusion that Molenbeek is devoid of problems.

“I attended a meeting once where 50 of my neighbours continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

Terror cell members jailed Fifteen members of cell receive prison sentences of up to 16 years Alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

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court in Brussels has sentenced 15 members of a terrorist cell uncovered in Verviers last year to prison terms of up to 16 years. The men were accused of planning a terrorist attack, possibly with Brussels Airport as the target.

The three main defendants were sentenced to 16 years and fined €30,000 each. Souhaib El Abdi and Marouan El Bali had close links to two suspects who were killed in a shootout with police in Verviers in January last year. El Abdi was also linked to the trafficking of fighters to Syria.

Mohamed Arshad was responsible for providing the lodgings in Verviers where the raid took place, as well as for furnishing guns and chemical products that could be used to manufacture the explosive TATP. The defendants also included 12 men accused of being members of a terrorist organisation. Their sentences ranged from 2.5 to eight years. Algerian-born Omar Damache, who

© Eric Lalmand/BELGA

Presiding judge Pierre Hendrickx during the judgement session in the trial of the terrorist cell

the court heard had played a crucial role in helping jihad fighters travel through Greece on their way to Syria, received

Refugees call police from inside container at Zeebrugge as oxygen runs out Seven Iranian migrants who were being trafficked in a container truck telephoned the police in Zeebrugge from inside the container, after they started to run out of oxygen, the prosecutor’s office in Bruges said.

The seven were being transported from Iran by human traffickers and were heading for the United Kingdom via sea transport from Zeebrugge. The truck in which they were travelling was carrying crates of wine.

The container had been disengaged from the truck and was waiting on the dockside when the men, otherwise in good health, began to notice a lack of oxygen. It is likely

that they had not been in the container for the whole journey; many human traffickers load passengers into lorries in lorry parks along the roads of West Flanders for the last leg of their passage to the UK. Recent weeks and months have seen a sharp increase in the numbers of migrants trying to get to the UK through Zeebrugge’s port. Belgium’s criminal code was recently amended to make any unauthorised entry to a port an offence. Both the lorry parks and the port of Zeebrugge are subject to regular police surveillance to combat human trafficking. \ AH

the longest sentence.

The court also heard how a mobile phone belonging to one of the accused contained a drawing of a building at Brussels Airport. The drawing also showed a man with a baggage cart, labelled “bomb”. According to the prosecution, the Verviers cell planned to attack the airport with other cells, with up to 10 suicide bombers.

In the attack that took place in March this year, the bombs were brought into the airport on baggage carts, with two of the three terrorists detonating their bombs once inside. The other man escaped but was later arrested.

The court pointed out in its ruling that some of the men had had very little religious background before linking up with Islamist extremists, but were instead known to police as habitual criminals. “Their so-called religious conviction is often a pretext for carrying out violent attacks in Syria and in Europe,” the court said.

Cyclists unhappy with state of bike paths Just over seven in 10 cyclists in Flanders are dissatisfied with the shocks and vibrations felt on the region’s cycle paths, according to a survey by cyclists’ union Fietsersbond and the University College Odisee among 2,500 cyclists in 173 municipalities.

About half the cycling paths in Flanders are made from concrete and many others from clinker cement, both of which require seams that become more bumpy over time.

The materials are, however, aesthetically attractive and easy to maintain. According to Fietsersbond, asphalt is cheaper and more comfortable to ride on. A quarter of cycle paths in Flanders are built using asphalt.

More than 20% of the municipalities indicated that they wanted to repair cycling paths but did not have the budgets for it. Municipalities receive subsidies from the government of Flanders to increase the size of cycle paths and help separate them from road traffic, but not for repairs. Fietsersbond called on the government to provide subsidies for improvements to the comfort of cyclists using the paths.

Public works minister Ben Weyts acknowledged that the subsidy policy could be improved. He is increasing the annual budget of cycling infrastructure in general from €90 to €100 million. But, he pointed out, he cannot force municipalities to use a specific material. \ Andy Furniere

More than one in five Flemish non-profits expect to fold within five years More than one in five (23%) Flemish non-profit and community organisations have reported that it is “probable” or “very probable” that they will have to halt their activities over the next five years. A reduction in government subsidies is the main reason for the current concerns, according to a study

by Antwerp University.

The research, which is part of a larger European project, surveyed nearly 700 civil society organisations on their work, political function and challenges. The survey includes sports and sociocultural organisations, unions, non-profits and employers’ organisations. Federal organisations are a little more optimistic than those working at the Flemish level, with 20% fearing their disappearance in five years.

The researchers, professor Jan Beyers and PhD student Fred-

© Courtesy Damiaanactie

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the municipality of Sint-Joost in Brussels has only one street parking spot for every 10 inhabitants, compared to a regional average of one for every five residents

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tanning salons out of 37 recent inspections were not up to code.

Twelve were down for serious breaches such as admitting minors or using lamps that exceeded radiation limits

invested by Flemish Brabant province in two cycle highways between Leuven and Tienen, covering a distance of 4.6km of the eventual 20km route. Work begins in 2019 and will take one year

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erik Heylen, were surprised by the figures, “particularly as Belgian civil society organisations have quite significant budgets in comparison with other countries”, Heylen said in a statement. About 63% of the organisations have an annual working budget of more than €100,000.

The reason cited most for the organisations’ worries is a reduction in government subsidies. More than 70% of the Dutch-speaking organisations said this was their main challenge. The subsidies make up an average 39% of the organisations’ working budget.

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research and the European Research Council. \ AF

a year to live in Tassel Hotel in Brussels, the first Art Nouveau house designed by Victor Horta, which is up for rent. The 1893 house was built for Horta’s friend, university professor Emile Tassel

diameter of the tunnel drill christened Margriet, which arrived in Antwerp last week to bore two tunnels 28 metres under the Albert Canal for water pipes and electricity cables

july 13, 2016

WEEK in brief This year’s Democracy Prize awarded by the Ghent-based organisation Democracy 2000 has been given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the group that produced the Panama Papers detailing taxavoidance practices by banks, politicians, business people and some celebrities. The consortium includes two Flemish journalists: Lars Bové of De Tijd and Kristof Clerix of Knack.

Belgium needs a special antiterror unit based in Brussels, the public prosecutor for the capital, Jean-Marc Meilleur, has said.

The major terrorism cases being investigated by the judicial police are interfering with other forms of police work, he said, including organised crime, human trafficking and fraud. Justice minister Koen Geens and home affairs minister Jan Jambon have said they will wait for the results of the parliamentary commission looking into the attacks of 22 March before making any changes.

Brussels’ pedestrian zone has been awarded a prize for urban planning from the European Council of Spatial Planners. The zone won for “upgrading the pedestrian and cycle access in the heart of the city, committed to the change of use of Anspachlaan and the articulation of residential and tourist areas through social and environmental upgrading of public space”.

Smoking will be banned in most areas of Antwerp Zoo later this month, zoo authorities have announced. A similar ban comes into force in animal park Planckendael in Mechelen in August. The only exceptions to the ban will be six marked areas in the zoo and eight in Planckendael.

North Station in Brussels is now the busiest in the country, taking over first place from South Station, according to the national rail

face of flanders authority NMBS. Last year North Station saw a weekday average of 63,104 passengers, an increase of 8% on the year before. That came on top of a 24% increase recorded in 2014. At the same time, South Station saw a 1% increase in traffic.

Ghent University has put a ban on travel to Turkey for its students and staff on university business, following the recent bomb attack at Istanbul Ataturk airport. Organised trips and exchange visits to the country by 19 Erasmus students have been cancelled. The foreign affairs ministry has not issued an advice to the public not to travel to Turkey, but advises “increased vigilance”.

The Brussels-Capital Region is Belgium’s worst offender in the breach of the smoking ban in bars and restaurants, with one in four inspections revealing an offence, compared to 17% across the country. In Flanders, West Flanders comes close to Brussels, with 23% failed inspections, followed

by East Flanders with 21% and Limburg with 20%. Hasselt was the worst-performing city (35%), while Leuven scored only 5%.

The government of Flanders has approved a plan to carry out its own fiscal regularisation for inheritance tax, finance minister Bart Tommelein has said. In return for immunity from prosecution, tax avoiders will be able to declare their inheritance income and pay off taxes owed in addition to a supplement, which cannot be appealed. The money taken in, Tommelein said, will be used to lower inheritance tax rates, which in some cases can run to 65%.

Mohamed Abrini, alleged to be “the man in the hat” who fled the scene at Brussels Airport after the terrorist attacks on 22 March, will not be extradited to France for the time being, the Cassation Court has ruled. The court objected to

the lack of explanation of a clause in the ruling approving his extradition which covered his right to serve any sentence handed down in France in a Belgian jail. Abrini is also accused of helping organise the attacks in Paris last November. He will be delivered to French authorities once the lower court approves a new warrant. Meanwhile, forensic scientists have discovered traces of the chemical triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in blood from the suicide bombers at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station. © Jasper Jacobs/Belga

Despite increased security following the March terrorist attacks, inspectors from the directorategeneral for aviation found serious gaps in security in five inspections carried out at Brussels Airport in April, according to internal emails leaked to La Libre Belgique. The inspectors found it was possible to come into contact with checked baggage without a security badge, shoes were not being X-rayed when the security gate alarm went off, and there were problems with checking hand luggage.

Ethical and sustainable sports clothing is nearly impossible to find in Belgium, according to consumer organisation TestAankoop. An increasing number of products are produced in Cambodian sweatshops, where workers are underpaid and overworked, while being exposed to heat and chemical vapours. Test-Aankoop questioned some of the largest manufacturers of sporting goods but received no examples of good practice in response.

Greg Van Avermaet held the Tour de France’s coveted yellow jersey for three days last week.

Van Avermaet, 31, from Lokeren, took the prize after winning stage five, a 216km stretch. Fellow Flemish cyclist Thomas De Gendt was second in stage five and held the polka dot jersey as king of the mountains for three days.

OFFSIDE Losing face You wouldn’t need to have a great memory for faces to remember Rouslan Toumaniantz. He’s the man who hit the headlines in 2009 when he tattooed 56 stars on the face of 19-year-old Kimberley Vlaeminck from Kortrijk.

Toumaniantz’s own face is no oil painting. He has earlobe stretchers, a heavy nose-ring, seven piercings on his bottom lip and four on the top, nostril piercings, and tattoos on every available square centimetre of skin. Not a face you’d forget in a hurry.

However, it is eye-catching. So much so that he was the clear choice for a campaign team from America First, an organisation that

Thomas Van Der Plaetsen Thomas Van Der Plaetsen is the picture of triumph over adversity, as he clutches the decathlon gold medal he won last week at the 2016 European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

The image was not nearly so cheerful less than two years ago.

In October 2014, the young star was summoned into a sombre meeting with doping officials who told him he had failed an out-of-competition drugs check.

That was devastating enough for the 2014 World Indoor Championships bronze medallist and Belgian athlete of the year: though he knew he hadn’t taken anything illegal, it would be tough to prove his innocence.

But what came next was even more crushing. The abnormal result was due to the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin, the product of a condition that was until then undiagnosed: testicular cancer.

Van Der Plaetsen immediately began treatment: surgery to remove the tumour, followed by chemotherapy. He lost his hair, and much muscle, and the recovery was gruelling.

Soon after completing the course of chemotherapy, he went down to the track and was only able to jog one lap. He describes it as the lowest moment of the past year.

But he persisted. He returned to decathlon competition in July 2015, almost nine months after his last chemotherapy session, defending his World University Games title in the Korean city of Gwangju.

The Amsterdam title is part of Ghent-born Van Der Plaetsen’s steady recovery plan. He won the European crown with 8,218 points, ahead of Czech Adam Helcelet on 8,157. “It’s difficult to say if this is my greatest win ever, but it is definitely the one I cherish the most,” he said.

“After everything that happened last year, that’s why this has so much significance. It’s a fantastic comeback,” he said.

Now 25, he is looking at this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. And with European gold, he has to be in with a chance at the highest level.

Elsewhere, Belgium won the 4x400m relay, in 3.01.10, just ahead of Poland and Great Britain, though none of the team of the three Borlée brothers – Kevin, Jonathan and Dylan – and Julien Watrin reached the podium in the individual 400m.

And Bruges-born Philip Milanov, followed up last year’s World University Games gold with a silver in the men’s discus. \ Leo Cendrowicz

Flanders Today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the Flemish Region and is financially supported by the Flemish authorities.

© Facebook

supports Donald Trump, when they went onto Google Images and searched for something like “crazy face”. We see Toumaniantz above the slogan “I can’t get a job because Trump is a racist”, presumably a

sarcastic dig at those who blame Trump for all the ills of the US before he’s even been awarded the Republican Party’s nomination.

Toumaniantz responded on Facebook (in English): “Hi everybody, I’m Rouslan from Belgium and here is some of my work. I’m a tattoo artist, not a politician.” Pointing out that he didn’t care in the least about politics in his own country, let alone about American politics, he added: “Thx for understanding.

Thx for sharing if you like my work.”

He attached some photos of his work, and the post was shared 11,735 times and liked more than 12,000 times. As one commenter put it, “Great advertisement”.

The logo and the name Flanders Today belong to the Flemish Region (Benelux Beeldmerk nr 815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.

Editor Lisa Bradshaw DEPUTY Editor Sally Tipper CONTRIBUTING Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Bartosz Brzezi´nski Agenda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino Art director Paul Van Dooren Prepress Mediahuis AdPro Contributors Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Andy Furniere, Lee Gillette, Diana Goodwin, Clodagh Kinsella, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Mediahuis NV

Editorial address Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 467 23 06 editorial@flanderstoday.eu subscriptions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu Advertising 02 467 24 37 advertising@flanderstoday.eu Verantwoordelijke uitgever Hans De Loore

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\ POLITICS

5TH COLUMN Spitting image

Only weeks ago, the streets in Flanders were full of Belgian flags. On Flanders’ national holiday, 11 July, there were Flemish lion flags hanging from windows. Most Flemish people see no contradiction in that. They feel both Belgian – especially when the national football team is playing – and Flemish.

Flemish nationalists are an exception to that. They feel Flemish first and foremost.

Most of them care very little for Belgium and can’t wait for Flanders to become independent.

On the eve of the national holiday, Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois of nationalists N-VA called for the constitution to be declared open for revision before the 2019 federal elections. This is a necessary step for another round of state reform, which the nationalists hope will eventually dissolve Belgium.

According to Bourgeois, Belgium consists of two democracies. To illustrate this, he recalled the recent strikes, which lasted much longer among French-speakers. “The language border has become a strike border and the Flemish spit on that,” he said. It was a slip of the tongue, which overshadowed the 11 July festivities.

The other Flemish parties reacted strongly. “As CD&V, we do not spit on people,” vice minister-president Hilde Crevits said. Others called for the holiday to be a celebration and for Bourgeois to speak not as a nationalist but as ministerpresident.

Bourgeois reacted: “I was using an image to complain about a problem,” he said. “It's beyond belief that anyone might think I or my party would spit on people.”

The Bourgeois administration is in fact in better shape than it was last year. Bart Tommelein, who replaced Annemie Turtelboom as Open VLD vice minister-president and finance and energy minister, has brought a new dynamism to the team.

Rather than agonising about the debt brought on by oversubsidising solar panels in the past, he is pushing towards more renewable energy, while the government has come up with agreements on the reform of child allowance, secondary education and the provinces.

However, there are still clouds over Bourgeois I, which still has to decide on the UPlace leisure and shopping centre just outside Brussels. UPlace lacks support, as it is feared it will cause extra traffic jams and draw away customers from local shops. N-VA insists on granting it all the necessary permits, though, as the issue has become a symbol of legal certainty. \ Anja Otte

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Minister-president calls for increased regional powers Geert Bourgeois says Belgium needs to reform constitution once again Alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

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inister-president Geert Bourgeois says Belgium needs to reform its constitution again in 2019, handing more powers from the federal to the regional governments. He was speaking in Kortrijk on the eve of Flemish Community Day on 11 July.

Despite an agreement at federal level to call a moratorium on language community issues to ease the functioning of the coalition – which includes Bourgeois’ own Flemish nationalist N-VA party for the first time – divisions between Flemish and French-speaking communities remain, Bourgeois said. “We have to remain alert and defend the interests of the Flemish people,” he said.

The way to do that, he said, is to reform the Belgian state again, handing new powers to the regions. That will be the N-VA platform for the elections in 2019, when voters will be asked to elect federal and regional representatives.

Speaking on VTM News, he talked about recent strike action by prison officers and rail staff,

© Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga

which was mainly followed by French-speaking unions.

“I think people vividly recall the outrageous strikes in the prisons and on the railways,” he said. “The language border has become the strike border, and the people of Flanders spit on it. They will not accept not being able to go to work and not being able to move around as they please.”

Other politicians were quick to respond to Bourgeois’ statement. “In CD&V we don’t spit on people, even if we disagree with certain choices made on the other side of the language border,” said Hilde Crevits, a member of Bourgeois’ government. Bart Tommelein, another fellow minister, pointed out that Bourgeois was speaking in his own name, not that of the Flemish government.

Bourgeois responded that he “was using an image to complain about a problem,” he said.

“It’s beyond belief that anyone might think I or my party would spit on people.”

Flemish Community Day is also the occasion for the government to announce the recipients of community honours, given to people who have contributed to the positive image of Flanders.

This year, honours are awarded to 10 people.

They include philosopher Etienne Vermeersch, child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens, athlete Marieke Vervoort and former politician Miet Smet.

Climate road-map for 2020 puts emphasis on renewable energy

Flanders approves €450,000 grant to support farmers in Malawi

Flemish energy minister Bart Tommelein has published the Flemish government’s energy plan for 2020, with an emphasis on renewable sources. The plan is Flanders’ road-map for reaching its 2020 climate objectives, and calls for 280 new wind turbines and 6.4 million new solar panels.

The plan calls for increases of one-third for solar power and 40% for wind energy, compared to 2014 figures. The growth of solar panels will be encouraged by offering cheap energy loans for the installation.

“If everyone in Flanders were to install a solar panel today, we would reach our goal by tomorrow,” Tommelein said. “The plan is ambitious, but not unrealistic.

We have no time to lose.”

The targets will be evaluated every year between now and

The Flemish government has approved a grant of €450,000 for the International Food Policy Research Institute in Malawi, for the development of agricultural advisory services.

The project aims to improve the productivity of Malawi farmers by keeping them informed of sustainable agricultural techniques in a co-ordinated way, rather than the fragmented way information is disseminated now.

Flemish development co-operation with Malawi is centred entirely on agriculture, the main occupation of most of the country’s population.

As most people are dependent on small farms, they are vulnerable to climate change – a situation helped by access to better information.

“This year the food shortage in Malawi will be even greater than usual because of the climate phenomenon El Niño,” said Flemish ministerpresident Geert Bourgeois, announcing the grant. “6.5 million people, about 40% of the population, may have to rely on food aid in the next year. Flanders is one of the main donors to Malawi and we take responsibility in these difficult times, not only through this project, but also by providing emergency relief.” \ AH

2020, the plan says. “That means we can make adjustments where needed,” Tommelein said.

Previously, the government had adopted a target of 40% by 2030 for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and from energy consumption in buildings and technical infrastructure. The 40% cut is based on 2005 levels. The idea was for the government to make its own contribution to the changes it was asking of the rest of society.

“We want to set a good example by giving ourselves an ambitious target, linked to concrete measures in the short term,” said environment minister Joke Schauvliege. “I am calling on all of our social partners to announce their commitments in time for the second Climate Summit in December.” \ AH

Nobody will lose out with new child allowance, welfare minister pledges Families will not see a loss of income from the reform of child allowance, Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen has pledged. He was reacting to claims from the Centre for Social Policy at Antwerp University (UAntwerp) that some families could lose €133 a month under the new rules.

In May, the government of Flanders approved a plan to switch from a system using a sliding scale – from €90 a month for a first child to €249 a month for a third – to a flat-rate system of €160 a month for each child.

That system is set to begin in 2019.

According to UAntwerp’s research, an average family with two children will lose €133 a year under the new system, while larger families lose up to €1,500 a year. Only the richest 20% and the poorest 10% will benefit from the new system, according to the study.

The research is based on a number of faulty premises, said Vandeurzen, and the system allows for corrections later should that prove necessary.

“Nobody will be worse off,” Vandeurzen said. \ AH

Flanders and Netherlands celebrate Rubens and Rembrandt together Tourism agency Toerisme Vlaanderen and its Dutch counterpart, NBTC Holland Marketing, have signed a declaration of intent to increase co-operation.

The agreement was signed in The Hague by Flemish tourism minister Ben Weyts.

Co-operation between Flanders and the Netherlands is aimed at strengthening their joint competitive position on the international tourism market, attracting more visitors together than they might separately, and cutting costs by sharing organisational tasks.

Weyts later had talks with Henk Kamp, the Dutch minister for economic affairs, and the conversation covered a possible

joint tourism mission.

In the meantime, one of the first areas of collaboration will be the preparation of the Year of Rubens in 2018, rapidly followed by the Year of Rembrandt in 2019. “Toerisme Vlaanderen is hard at work on a major tourism-cultural project focusing on the Flemish Masters,” Weyts said. “They are strong world ambassadors, symbols of our age-old tradition of craftsmanship, creativity and innovation.”

With NBTC, he continued, “we can place our Flemish Masters side by side with the Dutch Masters at the centre of the world market, and that’s good for both of us”. \ AH

\ COVER STORY

july 13, 2016

Clean sweep

Municipalities combine education and tough fines to tackle rubbish problems continued from page 1

voiced their complaints about people who drive over here from miles away, pull their vans over and throw out entire kitchens – just stacking them up and waiting for the city to come and take them away.”

Illegal dumping is a dilemma for Molenbeek. In 2014 alone, local authorities picked up more than 2,000 tons of abandoned rubbish – including couches and kitchen appliances – at a cost of more than €250,000. It’s no surprise, then, that many of the street sweepers Sandland has met in his neighbourhood feel overwhelmed and overstretched.

And Molenbeek isn’t even the worst when it comes to rubbish.

Nearby Schaarbeek, with just 40,000 more inhabitants, collects nearly twice as much illegal waste every year. And overall, the Brussels-Capital Region doesn’t have much to boast about.

don’t know what the rules are. So if they see other people littering on the street, they’ll do that, too.”

De Groot now lives in California, but three years ago, while living in Brussels, she made a radio documentary on the topic of dirty Brussels. “You also have a host of issues such as the ones related to subletting,” she says. “I visited certain areas where you have families of six, seven people living in tiny oneroom apartments in dire conditions. Recycling is arguably not their priority.”

And there’s another issue: “If you see how little physical space they have,” she says, “you realise that if they have to throw some trash away, well, they just can’t wait for collection day, so they have to put it outside.”

Solving the problem of rubbish can be a daunting task, but one neighbourhood believes it has found the right recipe. Schaar-

People drive here from miles away, pull their vans over and throw out entire kitchens In a 2012 report conducted by consumer organisation TestAankoop, neighbouring Anderlecht and the City of Brussels ranked as the dirtiest places in Belgium. In another report by the European Commission from 2010, of the 75 European cities surveyed, only five urban areas performed worse than Brussels in terms of cleanliness. In Western Europe, only Athens and Palermo were dirtier.

The situation has improved since, but progress is slow, held up by a number of underlying issues. “Just look at how complex Brussels is,” says Flemish journalist Helena de Groot. “You have 19 municipalities, and they each have their own rules and regulations and teams of street cleaners, and then you have Net Brussel, or the regional authority, which has its own cleaners who sweep the big arteries and collect the bags.”

On top of that, she adds, “cleanliness around public transportation is overseen by the transit authorities. As a result, you might have a street where one end is cleaned by the municipality, the other by the region and in the middle you might have a tram stop”.

Brussels is also a transit city, she points out. “A lot of people are here for shorter periods of time or come from very diverse levels of society. Either they don’t get attached enough to care, or they

beek, the second-largest municipality in Brussels, has combined two seemingly opposite philosophies of prevention and repression to combat illegal dumping.

The local cleaning division has one team responsible for educating residents. They organise school visits where they clean the streets with pupils and teach them to respect the community and the street sweepers who are part of it.

“The children need to know that the Coke can they throw on the ground doesn’t disappear magically; it’s Mustafa, or Mamadou, or Paul who has to pick it up,” says Geert Pierre, assistant head of Schaarbeek Netheid. “It’s a little thing, but it’s important because the children then go back to their homes and talk about it with their parents.”

But prevention on its own would be naive, he admits. A second team of four is responsible for identifying and punishing the actual offenders. Among a host of investigative methods, they set up cameras around the neighbourhood that record people in the act of throwing out illegal waste.

In one video, a man drags a couch from his apartment on to the pavement and leaves it there in broad daylight before scurrying away. If they can identify the culprit, the team go to their house, with the smoking gun in hand, and slap them with fines that start at €120.

© Photos courtesy Barry Sandland

Before and after: Barry Sandland transformed this dumping ground in Molenbeek into an urban garden, kicking off neighbourhood efforts to improve the area

In the last seven years since the introduction of the policies, representatives from other municipalities have turned to Schaarbeek looking for solutions to their own problems. “We have become like a role model for others,” Pierre says.

As we talk, a civil servant from Etterbeek is just leaving the office next door. “We don’t have the system of fines, so I wanted to learn a thing or two about it,” he tells me in passing.

Pointing to a map of Schaarbeek in his office that shows coloured lines and patches representing the divisions between the municipal and regional jurisdictions, Pierre says there should be just one unified cleaning division. “We can sit here talking about complexity being the biggest problem but,

at the end of the day, the average resident doesn’t care who cleans the streets. They just want them clean.”

The results of his department’s efforts can seem impressive. Even though Schaarbeek collects twice as much illegal waste as Molenbeek, since 2010 it has managed to reduce that number by more than 20%, from over 5,000 tons to just under 4,000.

“Our core business is cleaning,” says Pierre, “and before we can punish the residents we have to know that our job is done well. We have to lead by example.”

Back in Barbeton, Sandland is on the same page. “All you have to do is make a place look nice, and people will show respect. It’s a variation on the broken window

policy. If you fix something, people will begin to respect it. And as soon as you don’t fix a problem, you leave an invitation for more to come.”

He eventually decided to join the garden society that meets in his neighbourhood three to four times a year. “One day we knocked on every door on my street asking if we could take a bit of the pavement in front of the houses and put a plant and a crawler there,” he says. “Every single house said yes.”

Then the city came in, he says, “and added some soil, and this year we’re looking at the vines growing to two metres tall. Maybe in five years’ time, our street will have transformed itself from one of the filthiest in Molenbeek into a green garden area.”

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Telecoms Proximus Proximus CEO Dominique Leroy has signed an agreement with 17 European telecoms companies to proceed with the development of a 5G mobile network to take over from the current 4G, which has been delayed in Brussels because of concerns over radiation limits.

The new 5G will offer speeds of up to 10GB per second. Tests will begin in 2020.

Logistics Katoen Natie The Antwerp-based logistics company has taken over the Talke Group in Belgium and the Netherlands for an undisclosed sum, the group has announced. The German Talke Group is specialised in chemicals transport and has facilities in Kallo and Zwijndrecht in Flanders and Moerdijk in the Netherlands.

Mobility Zipcar The world’s largest car-sharing network debuts in Belgium on 14 September, after the Brussels-Capital Region granted a five-year licence. Zipcar customers use an app to find cars from the fleet of 200 Peugeot 208s.

Property OP Office des Proprietaires (OP) has expressed an interest in buying the Global Estate division of Optima Group, after Ghent-based Optima bank declared bankruptcy. The Brussels-based OP said the acquisition would allow it to develop a presence in Flanders.

Mobile Orange Orange Belgium CEO JeanMarc Harion has stepped down to become CEO of Orange Egypt. Harion has been at the helm of Orange, formerly known as Mobistar, since 2011.

His term ends on 31 August. In the meantime, the board will meet to discuss a replacement.

Transport De Lijn The Flemish public transport authority will only buy buses running on electricity, hydrogen or hybrid from 2019, according to a document sent to members of the board. De Lijn was criticised last year for an order of 238 diesel buses, some of which have still to be delivered.

\6

Nanotech investment fund awarded €30m support ImecXpand will help develop Internet of Things start-ups Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he government of Flanders is investing €30 million in an investment fund driven

by Leuven-based nanotechnology company imec. ImecXpand targets companies in the Internet of Things sector: evolutions in nano-electronics and sensor technology that allow physical objects to connect and react to each other.

The aim is to set start-up companies in this field on the right track. “ImecXpand will support start-ups that want to develop imec technology and bring it to the market, but because of the risks involved they don’t have access to current funding methods,” said Luc

Van den Hove, CEO of imec (pictured). “It will also support ideas from outside imec that can, combined with imec technology, lead to a start-up.”

The Flemish government is investing €30 million in the initiative. “The Internet of Things can improve the quality of our lives and jobs almost automatically,” said economy minister Philippe Muyters. “There is still a wealth of opportunities in smart health, smart manufacturing, smart transport and smart cities.”

The goal is to raise a total of €100 million through imecXpand. For additional support, imec is looking to private partners and the EU.

Long commute takes toll on employees’ well-being, study finds Workers who commute for more than two hours a day are more at risk of stress and fatigue than those whose commute takes less time, according to a study by the Innovation & Work Foundation. The study is based on data provided by the Flemish Workability Monitor of 2013.

The researchers found that some 67% of workers who live in Flanders spend less than one hour a day commuting. About 10% commute for two hours a day or more, particularly those in highly skilled positions. About one in five employees with a higher education diploma commutes more than two hours a day, while less than one in 10 of employees without such a degree has such a long commute.

The researchers found that a long commute has a negative influence on daily functions and on well-being in general. Some 18% of the long commuters experience difficulties maintaining a work-life balance, which is twice as many as those commuting less than one hour a day.

The workers with a lengthy commute also report feeling more stress at work – 38% compared to 27% of those with easier commutes. As a consequence, those with long commutes are absent from work more often. Nearly 13% of those with long commutes regularly consider changing jobs.

The study pointed out, however, that working conditions and specific tasks have much more impact on well-being than the commute. \ AF

Banks should hire hackers to tighten cyber-security, National Bank says Belgium’s banks should hire the services of “ethical hackers” to improve cyber-security by discovering the weak points in their systems, according to the National Bank of Belgium (NBB).

Ethical hackers – also known as white hats – are experts in the art of breaching computer security. Unlike malicious hackers (or black hats), they use their skills to test systems in order to improve security.

According to a report in financial daily De Tijd, BNP Paribas Fortis and KBC are looking for computer specialists to carry out research into security. This is in response to the call from the NBB for banks to organise “wide-ranging security tests in which independent experts investigate the efficiency and quality of security, by means of realistic attack scenarios”.

Belgian law forbids any breach of

computer security to gain access to computer systems, whether ethical or not. Financial sector federation Febelfin has yet to take a position on the matter, but a spokesperson said the organisation would be ready to call for new legislation if necessary to ensure ethical hacking under the right circumstances was protected from criminal prosecution. \ AH

© Courtesy imec

Changes to regulations on student jobs The federal government has approved changes to work policies concerning students who have part-time jobs. From next January, students will be allowed to work a maximum of 475 hours a year while retaining their student status for social security. The current law allows them to work for 50 days.

The change has been under discussion for some time, with employers calling for more flexibility to allow them to put students to work when they are needed. Only 3.5% of students ever complete their quota of 50 full days. A full day is considered at least two hours worked. Students will now be able to get the maximum benefit from the new quota.

The new rules also allow for overtime, which is not allowed at present, except in food service.

Working students pay only 2.7% of their pay for social security, compared to 13.1% paid by other workers. The employer’s contribution for students is 5.4%, compared to 30-35% for full-time workers. \ Alan Hope

Uplace: Loss of building permit ‘won’t affect timing of construction work’ The planned shopping, business and leisure complex Uplace in Machelen, just outside Brussels, will not suffer any delays despite the cancellation of the project’s building permit, the company has announced. The start of construction due to take place around the end of this year will go ahead as planned, it said.

Flanders’ Council for Permit Disputes rescinded the development’s permit last week, based on a complaint filed by a number of parties opposed to the complex, including the City of Vilvoorde. It’s the latest in a long line of obstacles to the progress of the shopping centre, which will be in Flemish Brabant. “We have every confidence that an application for a new permit on the basis of a new approved zoning plan will be dealt with in a positive manner,” a spokesperson for Uplace said.

Uplace was granted a permit by the previous Flemish government in 2011. Opponents to the project – concerned about the traffic situation on the Brussels ring road and the effect on shops in nearby town centres – immediately filed a complaint.

In the interim, another case against the project filed with the Council of

State partly cancelled the regional planning programme (Grup) for the zone where Uplace is located. The Council for Permit Disputes has now ruled that the Uplace permit has no legal basis since the Grup has been partly cancelled.

“The complaint is already four years old, and based on old arguments,” a Uplace spokesperson said. The government of Flanders approved a new Grup in January this year, which puts right the faults found by the Council of State, but the latest judgement takes no account of that.

Uplace can simply apply for a new permit on the basis of the new Grup.

“We have every confidence that it can be delivered within an acceptable timeframe,” Uplace said.

Uplace plans to begin construction at the end of this year, a decade after the plans were first announced, and the complex will take about two years to complete.

“Uplace will go forward with the project,” said Flemish ministerpresident Geert Bourgeois, speaking in the Concertation Committee, which brings together representatives of all three regions. “If they apply for a new permit, that will be dealt with in a properly objective manner by the minister in charge, Joke Schauvliege,” he said. \ AH

\ INNOVATION

july 13, 2016

Anonymous no more

week in innovation

UAntwerp researchers develop software to identify online culprits Sally Tipper More articles by Sally \ flanderstoday.eu

TEXTGAIN.COM

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esearchers at Antwerp University are studying how we use language online and putting it to use in fields as varied as marketing, child protection and anti-radicalisation.

Collecting vast amounts of data from social media, members of the Computational Linguistics & Psycholinguistics research group have been looking at how language technology can detect dangers on the internet for young people such as cyber bullying or sexually transgressive behaviour.

They use author profiling to reach conclusions about a text’s author based on how they write. “We analyse a lot of data and look at how different socio-demographic groups use language,” explains Guy De Pauw.

It’s fairly obvious that young people write differently online from older people, he says, but you can also analyse the differences between gender, for instance. “For people with bad intentions, it’s very easy to pretend to be somebody they’re not. We look at language features that are not under your conscious control.”

Previous research has shown that in very broad terms, females use more personal pronouns (I, you, we) while males use more quantifiers (one, many) and determiners (a, an, the). These aren’t hard-andfast rules, but if you feed all that information into a computational model, you can identify somebody’s age and gender with a fair degree of accuracy.

“If we have several thousand messages that we know to have

© Courtesy Textgain

Guy De Pauw (left) and Tom De Smedt are determining which online users have bad intentions

been written by females, the computer can construct a model around that data,” says De Pauw.

“And if you keep adding to the data, the computer will adapt to the language rather than us having to tell it what to look for.”

Their technology can also be used in the fight against radicalisation. “The methods are the same,” explains colleague Tom De Smedt. “By studying texts written by people who we know are fighting in Syria or otherwise spreading

We look at language features that are not under your conscious control That’s a very powerful technique, he continues, “especially for situations such as sexual predators.

Someone with bad intentions may know how youngsters chatted five years ago, but this changes all the time.”

hatred – because they are posting inflammatory tweets or pictures of weapons – we can see they use certain language and combinations of words.”

Using this data, they can trawl vast amounts of text to identify poten-

tial radicalisation. “It must be used cautiously,” De Smedt adds, “but we are exploring opportunities for collaboration with security and intelligence agencies.”

The technology is to a large degree language-independent: all you need is the data. The team mostly focus on Dutch and English in a research context; their spin-off Textgain, launched at the end of last year, aims to commercialise this expertise.

“Textgain allows us to extract facts, opinions and demographics information from social media, newspaper articles and so on in a wide range of languages,” explains De Pauw. “That type of information has invaluable applications in big data and e-marketing.”

The service is broadly aimed at anyone who has so much text they cannot possibly read it all, but who knows there’s useful information in it. “There’s no way anybody can read all the tweets that are published about the iPhone, for example,” says De Smedt, “but our technology could have a machine read it all, take out the salient points, find out whether people are being positive or negative, estimate who those people are, whether they are older or younger, male or female...”

On a grammatical level, he adds, the machine knows what has been written, but it also needs to understand the topic and the content of the text. “That’s the ultimate goal: to have a computer understand what is actually in the text. Technology is not there yet, but we are definitely fast approaching it.”

Flemish entrepreneur turns old windmill into solar powerhouse DESTEENENMOLEN.BE

Flanders’ energy minister, Bart Tommelein, doesn’t like to beat around the bush. If the region is to achieve its climate goals, he says, it has to get serious about solar power. So in June, when “the most energy-efficient house in Flanders” was officially inaugurated, the minister wasn’t going to miss it.

When you visit a house of the future, you generally don’t expect it to be a windmill dating to the 19th century. But that’s exactly what De Steenen Molen (The Stone Mill) is, albeit without its vanes, which were removed during renovation.

The building in Brecht, Antwerp province, is made up of two parts: a compact house and a small restaurant with a bed and breakfast. Floris Verbunt and his wife have just moved into the house and run the business together.

Verbunt’s father, Gie Verbunt, is the CEO of Izen, a company from nearby Lille that specialises in energy systems, including solar panels, heat pumps and solar boilers. He put all of his professional expertise into the project.

“When we decided to renovate the mill, we wanted to use every technology that’s out there,” says Gie. “The house is very well insulated, and the heating comes from solar collectors and

a heat pump, both of which also produce hot water. On top of that, the heat from the ventilation system is recycled and injected into the water boiler.”

While these may not be the most revolutionary techniques, the clever way in which they are installed and work together make De Steenen Molen (pictured) a truly ultra-low energy building. But Gie, whose company is the market leader in residential rooftop solar panels in Flanders, took it a step further.

“We didn’t just slap some panels on the roof,” he says. “We transformed the entire roof into an unalloyed solar plant.” The roof is indeed the show-piece of the house. It consists entirely of glass-to-glass solar cells (most PV cells have a synthetic back), which make the installation perfect for harvesting energy from scattered sunlight, typical of Flanders.

Because the house generates more energy than it consumes, the consumption value (known as E-value) lies far below zero, at minus 61. For comparison, newly constructed buildings need to have a value no greater than plus 50.

“This is a magnificent example of creative thinking by the construction and energy sectors,” says

© Courtesy De Steenen Molen

Tommelein. “It’s clear that renewable technologies play a key role in our ambition to consume less energy. It’s nice to see that day-to-day comforts can go hand in hand with energy efficiency. This is absolutely the future.”

The energy surplus from the solar roof is used to run the restaurant. “But we could also use it to power an electric car, if we had one,” says Floris.

The surplus also allows the building to be entirely self-sufficient. “We could even detach the house from the electrical grid,” says Gie. “For our company, this is the ideal way to show what we have to offer.” \ Senne Starckx

Drinkable seawater a step closer Researchers at Ghent University have developed technology to desalinate seawater and at the same time generate energy. Until now, the desalination process has required a lot of energy, but this breakthrough brings sustainable drinking water production from seawater a step closer.

For her PhD, bio-engineer Marjolein Vanoppen examined how to reduce the energy consumption of traditional desalination. To get salt from seawater, you generally need a membrane – a selective partition that lets water through while stopping salt – but that requires a lot of energy. Vanoppen solved this problem by installing a membrane that first stops the water and lets the salt pass, reducing the amount of energy consumed and generating more in the process.

Crevits calls for solar panels in schools Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits has challenged schools to propose measures to help the region reach its climate goals. Installing solar panels in schools could go a long way towards meeting the goals, she told the Flemish parliament last week.

Currently, 14% of schools in Flanders generate energy. The 2013 school buildings monitor shows that schools have a total surface area of 16.6 million square metres, a majority of which is occupied by buildings. The government agency for infrastructure in education, Agion, will now examine how to best promote the installation of solar panels on school roofs.

VUB roots out plagiarism The faculty of economic and social sciences at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) detected 34 acts of plagiarism among the 627 Master’s theses submitted at the end of the 2015 academic year. There are 16 cases so far this year, a number VUB expects to increase after the second exam period at the end of the summer. Ghent University discovered only 10 cases across the entire institution this year, and Antwerp University just six. The reason for the difference is that the VUB faculty has begun screening every thesis with plagiarism-detection software.

Joël Branson, dean of VUB’s faculty of economic and social sciences, said many students follow a one-year programme with less research time, which might lead them to plagiarise. \ Andy Furniere

\7

\ EDUCATION

july 13, 2016

Into the blue

week in education

UGent launches ocean research unit and English-language summer school Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

BLUEGROWTH.UGENT.BE

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hent University (UGent) has brought together its marine and maritime research activities at its Ostend science park, GreenBridge, to get the most out of its expertise in oceans and seas. A two-week English-language programme should also attract more international attention.

The Blue Growth cluster is named after a long-term EU strategy in which seas and oceans are identified as key drivers for the economy because of their potential for sustainable innovation and growth. Around the world, governments and companies are increasingly looking to the water to find solutions for shortages in food, resources and energy.

“About 70% of the Earth’s surface consists of water, but humankind has mainly plundered and polluted the oceans,” says UGent professor Colin Janssen, scientific co-ordinator of the Blue Growth cluster. “Respect for this environment is essential in UGent’s long-term strategy to benefit from the opportunities it provides.”

Janssen was also the driving force behind the Marine@UGent consor-

© Courtesy GreenBridge

The Blue Growth summer school has attracted students from around the world

sen says. “About half of the Flemish scientific publications on these topics are linked to UGent.”

The aim is that research at the new cluster will lead to solid technology and business activities. “The vicinity of the sea makes it easier for researchers to test their applications,” says GreenBridge CEO Marianne Martens.

Various partners plan to install a wave tank at GreenBridge, which will allow models of coastal engineering and offshore structures

Flanders may only have 60 kilometres of coastline, but it has a wealth of expertise tium, in which research groups from six of the university’s 11 faculties work together on marine and maritime research. These groups are active in aquaculture, marine biotechnology, seabed mining, coastal defence and offshore wind, wave and tidal power.

“UGent is the most active university in these fields in Flanders,” Jans-

– such as breakwaters, energy converters and offshore wind turbines – to be subject to waves, tidal currents and wind. The proximity of research centres like the Flemish Marine Institute and relevant companies should be an advantage as well. “Flanders may only have about 60 kilometres of coastline, but it has a wealth of

expertise in the marine and maritime domains,” says Martens. “We want to link all these centres of expertise and foster innovation through collaboration.”

GreenBridge also houses an incubator for new companies, which will help to turn research ideas into business initiatives. It currently has 20 projects, one of which is Laminaria, an Ostend company working on technology to harness energy from waves.

Subcon Europe – a company with Australian roots – chose Ostend as a base to explore the European market. Subcon specialises in developing artificial reefs that form the basis for offshore energy applications without harming marine organisms.

While the incubator currently offers space to a variety of enterprises, the plan is to focus more and more on blue growth. “In five years’ time, our incubator should be known as Flanders’ blue growth incubator,” Martens says.

GreenBridge is also reaching out to international students around the world with a new Englishlanguage programme for up to 20 participants, which will take place in September. It lasts two weeks,

with one maritime module and one marine module. Students can also opt to take only one module.

The interdisciplinary programme consists of lectures and practical courses. “Participants will carry out exercises on marine spatial planning on the beach, perform tests on wave energy in a lab, visit an offshore wind farm and examine platforms that can be used at sea for multiple purposes,” explains Noémie Wouters, spokesperson for Blue Growth.

The courses on aquaculture and blue energy will also contain an element on business development.

Participants will receive practical advice on how to establish a spinoff company and learn about the experiences of entrepreneurs like Laminaria CEO Steven Nauwelaerts.

The lecturers will also share their experience concerning the valorisation of research through working with companies or the government. Wouters says this formula has already attracted students from as far afield as Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Australia and Kenya.

The summer school is partly delivered via an online portal, created

by UGent to facilitate access to marine and maritime training initiatives all over Europe. The database contains about 900 initiatives from 40 countries.

Lecturers come from UGent, the Free University of Brussels (VUB), the University of Leuven, the Belgian technology industry’s knowledge centre, Sirris, and from abroad. The initiative is supported

by Flanders Knowledge Area, the agency for mobility and co-operation in higher education in Flanders and the Technical University Alliance for economic transformation in West Flanders. Dredging company Deme sponsors the programme.

Q&A Kris Van den Branden, programme director of the University of Leuven’s language teacher training department, is concerned about the status of language and culture in Flanders’ recently reformed secondary education, which will be built on eight “study domains” – but language and culture isn’t one of them What do you think about this decision?

Agriculture and horticulture, care and welfare, and Stem subjects have all been earmarked as study domains, but there is no equivalent for language and culture.

I find that an unfortunate decision. We live in the 21st century, which is often called an information and communication society, one that makes ever more complex demands on our linguistic and cultural competences.

Is it possible the government thinks these competences are too important to be isolated?

I hope so. It’s true that linguistic and cultural competences are crucial for everyone in today’s job market and in everyone’s societal and personal life. So it’s important that all students in the second and third grade improve their language and culture skills. I don’t doubt that.

In fact, it would be fairly easy to integrate these skills in all eight proposed domains. Students

have to learn to deal with written and digital information in a critical way, whether they’re studying engineering, farming or nursing.

They also need to learn to report in a clear and coherent manner, and discuss and debate with style. Our ambition has to be to transform domain-orientated education into a system that thoroughly develops language.

What about students who are passionate about language and culture itself?

That’s the challenge: offering deeper linguistic and cultural skills to those students. We should make sure that we don’t deny opportunities to those who have the ambition to become a journal-

ist, an author, a language teacher, a cultural worker or even a media specialist. I think these students deserve to be taught language and culture on a higher level than the ones in the eight proposed study domains. So I still want to see an extra ninth domain where language and culture are the focus.

Language divide on medical studies The 60-40 divide in the number of doctors allowed to graduate each year from the Flemish and French-speaking universities is “untouchable”, Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has warned. The agreement was intended to be a reflection of the relative weight of population, but the federal public health minister Maggie De Block is seeking to adjust that balance to 56.5% and 43.5%. The proposal has met with opposition from the Flemish GP union VGV as well as the government of Flanders. While French-speaking universities do not require an entrance exam, Flemish students must pass one to be allowed into medical studies.

Last week, more than 5,000 students took the exam. For the first time this year, they can access their detailed results online.

Young Flemings troubled by expectations According to a survey by the Flemish Youth Council among 1,100 people between the ages of 14 and 25, 37% of youngsters experience psychological problems and 60% feel they cannot meet others’ expectations. A full 41% of respondents said they had problems at school, while one in three reported problems at home.

Some eight in 10 youngsters said they try to burden others as little as possible with their troubles, and half try to deal with problems by themselves.

A GP is almost never consulted concerning these difficulties and, of the 37% with psychological issues, only 29% sought professional help.

Trial to recognise refugees’ diplomas The Flemish Interuniversity Council and the Flemish branch of the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (Naric) have launched a trial project to recognise more diplomas held by refugees. Newcomers in Flanders can request the recognition of their higher education diploma from Naric-Flanders. The system, however, has limitations, especially if the refugees are not in possession of the required paperwork to prove their education. The trial candidates will be required to follow an English-language Master’s programme related to their diploma. After one semester, the university’s lecturers and supervisors will advise Naric on a specific programme of study for the refugee to earn a Flemish degree.

\ Interview by Senne Starckx

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Heritage Walk During this guided tour of the picturesque beach town De Haan, you’ll learn about its development “from dunes to villas”. Unlike most other Belgian coastal resorts, De Haan has preserved its Belle Epoque character, with many architectural gems. Reservations suggested via toerisme@ dehaan.be. 20 July 10.30-12.30, De Haan Visitors Centre, Koninklijk Plein; free \ tinyurl.com/gp9mgcf

Bike & Beer Learn about Belgian beer culture, visit the new De Koninck beer experience centre, taste local brews and discover the best beer cafes in Antwerp – all during a three-hour bike tour. Reservations required via the website.

Saturdays until October 14.0015.00, Steenplein-Zuiderterras, Antwerp; €34 \ antwerpbybike.be

3D World Magic & Fun

You and your family will have a blast posing in various illusionistic scenes taken from current events and popular culture, or with dinosaurs or funny characters. New this year: A 3D video where you play the starring role, interacting with animals in Antarctica.

16 July to 28 August 11.00-18.00, Tentcomplex Zeeduik-Mariakerke, Ostend; €10 \ 3dworldbelgium.be

Paddleboard Yoga Tired of the same old yoga practice? Need to challenge yourself? Then try doing your downward-facing dog on a paddleboard floating in the water. Wetsuits for hire on site. The lessons will take place with a minimum of four participants, weather allowing. Reservations required via the website. Fridays until September 10.30-11.45, Sailcenter Limburg, Maasdijk 1, Ophoven; €22.50 \ sailcenterlimburg.com

Tuk-Tuk Tours It’s the newest way to enjoy the Flemish coast: in an electric tuk-tuk (an open-sided, three-wheeled passenger cart, traditionally found in Thailand). Tours start at the Casino in Middelkerke and take 30 minutes, going to WestendeBad and back with commentary and stops along the way.

15-17 July 9.00-22.00, Casino, Epernayplein, Middelkerke; €5 \ tinyurl.com/h5mawq3

\ 10

Shopping containers Meet Convoi, Antwerp’s newest, hippest shopping centre Dan Smith More articles by Dan \ flanderstoday.eu

WEARECONVOI.COM

T

ucked neatly behind Waagnatie, on the banks of the Scheldt, you’ll find Antwerp’s newest, hippest shopping centre. Convoi has been created from more than 50 shipping containers, which provide space to 40 businesses selling fashion, food and design.

But there are no chains here. At Convoi, the tenants are mostly young, local entrepreneurs looking to try out an idea or product.

“I wanted to make it as simple as possible,” says Kim Soeffers, the driving force behind the project.

“Convoi gives them a space to test and evolve. Each container comes ready to use with lighting, wi-fi and a selection of fittings. All they have to do is bring their products.”

Containers can be hired for periods ranging from a weekend to a year, with prices starting at €400 a week. For customers, the short contracts create a dynamic shopping experience that changes from week to week.

One such shop, Float, offers scarves, bags, jewellery and accessories created mainly by local designers. “We have a shop in the centre of Antwerp, but I’ve taken a container for a week to test the concept,” says owner Ambrosius Smets. “As a small business, we like to take as little risk as possible, and this gives us that option.”

Soeffers is clear about the type of tenants she wants to attract.

“Candidates need three things: to be an entrepreneur, to have the guts to follow their dream, to have a VAT number,” she says.

“I don’t believe you can consider yourself an entrepreneur if you’re sitting on a payroll. You need to go for it, and Convoi makes that easy.”

© Courtesy Convoi

Reema Shah, designer and director of Kapriss World, fell in love with the concept of Convoi as soon as she heard about it. “I believe it will attract the younger generation, and there are so many different shops,” she says. “I’m offering my new line of silver jewellery for two weeks. If it works well, I will do it again with a new collection.”

Another container is home to 24 Bottles, a line of reusable steel water bottles and accessories from Italy. Lennart Creël, who distributes this and other brands, sees Convoi as an opportunity to experiment. “We want to know how the consumer reacts to our products and build brand ambassadors,” he says. “We’ve initially taken the space for five weeks.

After that we might feature another of our brands.”

The containers are positioned in groups of five. “I designed it this way so shop owners can share experiences and work together,” says Soeffers. “The idea is to cross-fertilise ideas and learn from each other. I also encourage the bigger brands to share their knowledge and advice with the smaller businesses.”

ZenithOptimedia, a media agency based in Brussels, sounds like a strange tenant for a shopping centre, but account director Joke De Block begs to differ. “We tried to get some of our clients interested in Convoi, but larger companies don’t understand the concept of a pop-up,” she says. “So

we’re using this as a base where we can invite them to experience it and see the opportunities.”

Like all good shopping centres, there are places to buy a coffee or something to eat. There’s also a bar where you can watch ships pass by on the Scheldt.

Convoi will stay in its current location on Rijnkaai until March 2018 before moving somewhere else in Belgium. “Our aim is to have a series of centres around Europe, so the entrepreneurs can travel from one to the other,” explains Soeffers. “What doesn’t work in Antwerp might be a bestseller in Barcelona. People need to look further than their own markets, and we’ll give them that opportunity.”

BITE

Blueberry season is here, and you can pick your own Ripe, local blueberries are one of the joys of summer: sprinkled on your morning cereal, blended into a smoothie, baked into muffins or pies, or eaten by the handful. They’re not only delicious but are packed with vitamins and antioxidants.

The only downside is that they can be pricey, even when they’re in season. The solution: picking your own. It’s fun, it’s affordable, and the season is about to start.

On a warm summer day last year, I made the trip to Blueberry Fields, an organic farm in the Kempen, just north of Hasselt, where the damp, low-lying ground is ideal for growing these fruitbearing bushes native to North America. They’ve been growing blueberries there, without pesticides, for more than 30 years.

At the entrance, we received plastic buckets and were told to follow the signs to the pick-your-own field, which rotates according to which bushes are ripe at any given time. Another farm worker

© Courtesy O’Bio

directed us to the row of fruit we’d be plucking.

It didn’t take us long to get the hang of picking the tiny, round berries, but I now know why they cost so much in the shops. It’s fiddly work, and there’s a fair amount of hunting under leaves and reaching into bushes to get to the fruit.

In less than an hour, though, we had filled our buckets, which each held between three and four kilograms of blueberries. Back at the farm

BLUEBERRYFIELDS.BE

shop, the buckets were weighed, and we paid the current wholesale price, which was around €5 a kilo. Whatever couldn’t be eaten in the next couple of days went into the freezer, to be used throughout the year.

The farm shop sells the fruit fresh, as well as a variety of other products made from blueberries: juice, jam, syrup, chocolate, tea and even honey from their own bees. Depending on the day, you can enjoy a blueberry muffin or a slice of blueberry pie with a cup of coffee on their terrace. On weekends, there’s a food truck serving gourmet fare – prepared, of course, with blueberries.

Another pick-your-own blueberry field in Limburg is Blauwe Bessen in MeeuwenGruitrode. In West Flanders, visit O’Bio in Wielsbeke or Purfruit in Dentergem. \ Diana Goodwin

Until August

Across Flanders

july 13, 2016

A helping paw

Dogs in Flanders are learning to help people with illnesses and disabilities Sally Tipper More articles by Sally \ flanderstoday.eu

DYADIS.ORG

National charity Dyadis, which trains assistance dogs for people in need, is looking for volunteers to help socialise the devoted and reliable companions.

A

vigilant guardian, a helping hand, a constant companion: assistance dog June is the best thing to have happened to Muriel Jaqmin in years.

The 46-year-old from Dilbeek, Flemish Brabant, has had multiple sclerosis for 15 years, a condition that has left her hemiplegic, meaning she can’t use the left side of her body. She and three-yearold June adopted each other six months ago. It’s a decision that has changed Jaqmin’s life.

“Day to day, June helps me get into bed and brings me objects I’ve dropped,” she explains. “If I fall, she knows she has to bring me an emergency phone so I can call for help, and she warns me if she thinks intruders are trying to get into the house. She makes me feel much safer, and I know I can count on her.”

The two were brought together

by Dyadis, a national charity that trains and funds assistance dogs for people with illnesses and disabilities that restrict their mobility.

The idea is to increase a person’s autonomy and enable them to live independently, through training the dogs to carry out a variety of practical tasks around the house and outside.

That might be helping someone out of bed or out of a shirt, fetching objects from another room, collecting the post, picking items off the supermarket shelves, opening doors or cupboards, switching on lights, even pulling washing out of the machine and into a basket.

They are also taught to fetch help if their master needs it, from neighbours or passers-by.

And of course, they offer company.

“The love of a dog is something incredible. June is the best thing that’s happened to me in recent years,” Jaqmin says. “She gives me so much affection, and she never gets tired of cuddles and being stroked. We’re very close; she’s a part of me. She’s always by my side to check I’m OK.” Dyadis, based in Sint-PietersWoluwe in Brussels, trains about 10 assistance dogs each year, and the process takes two years per dog. They choose puppies from approved breeders, and, aged two months, the young dogs are sent to live with “puppy-walkers”. These are volunteer families or individuals who spend up to 18 months socialising the dogs and getting them used to normal daily activities both at work and at home.

© Courtesy Dyadis

Muriel Jaqmin, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, says her assistance dog June is the best thing that’s happened to her in years

In theory, anyone can be a puppywalker, explains Dyadis spokesperson Danny Vancoppernolle.

Realistically, though, it has to be someone who can spend time with the dog; leaving the dog alone for 12 or more hours a day isn’t going to help it prepare for a life assisting an owner.

charges to weekly group lessons, for basic training and so that the dogs can socialise. When they’re 18 months old, the dogs go into a kind of canine boarding school, arriving on a Monday morning for a week of more specialised training, and leaving on Friday evening to spend the weekend with a foster

The dogs have to get used to being with someone all the time and learning all these different aspects of life “Some of our volunteers take the dog to work,” he says. “Others work part-time, some live alone, some are retired. Some are disabled themselves, but they do it to help others. We pay for everything; it’s your time that we want.”

Puppy-walkers go with their

family.

When the training is complete, there’s a graduation ceremony, before the masters and dogs set off on their new lives together. Dyadis staff stay in touch to provide support when it’s needed.

One volunteer puppy-walker who

gets round a hectic professional life by taking her dog to work with her is Carla Dejonghe of Open VLD, a member of the Brussels parliament. She and Lotus are a familiar sight around the city. This is Dejonghe’s second time looking after a Dyadis puppy; the first, Itch, has been placed with a new master.

“I take Lotus with me in the car, we take the metro, tram, bus, we go shopping together… she’s not afraid of those things,” Dejonghe says. “The dogs have to get used to being with someone all the time and learning all these different aspects of life.”

What are the benefits of being a puppy-walker? “You know they will soon be helping someone who really needs them,” she says.

“When I see Itch’s new owner, he looks at Itch, and he almost starts to cry because he’s so happy to have him.”

But a puppy-walker’s time is temporary, which “is sad in a way,” she says, “because you love the dogs and they have to leave you.

But seeing how much he is loved and needed makes it easier”.

Dyadis mostly works with labradors and golden retrievers, Vancoppernolle explains. “They love to retrieve! As an assistance dog, they have to pick things up and bring them to someone, and as a breed, that’s what they’re programmed to do.”

They’re also naturally very friendly, he continues. “They like all different kinds of people. Some breeds only like one kind of master, or only one person. They don’t want to work for everyone. But labradors don’t care. They’re always eager to work.”

The waiting list for a dog is one to two years. And of course, having an assistance dog is not the answer for everyone. “A lot of people don’t understand that a dog is a living animal,” says Vancoppernolle. “It’s not a robot, it can’t do everything, it can’t work all the time, it needs a dog life too. It smells, it sheds hair, and it can’t wash the dishes. But it’s wonderful for people who like dogs.”

\ 11

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If you can’t think of anything at all, you’d better check out our new e-book

Quirky Flanders offers 20 unexpected – or downright odd – activities or sights across the region you can get busy taking part in right now

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ctoRY

\ ARTS

july 13, 2016

Under the lens

week in arts & CULTURE

Summer of Photography festival explores the meaning of urban spaces Sarah Crew More articles by Sarah \ flanderstoday.eu

Spearheaded by Bozar, the biennial Summer of Photography festival spotlights international urban photography, raising questions about how people live together in cities.

B

ozar pursues its mission to shine a light on the world with the latest edition of its international photography festival. Every two years the capital’s leading arts centre stages a major reflection on contemporary photography in a sweeping multi-venue event.

This summer is no exception, with exhibitions and activities extending beyond the walls of Bozar to museums and galleries across Brussels, involving 30 partners and more than 65 artists. The event focuses on the relationship between people and space in the unifying theme Urban Vibes.

Two years ago the biennial examined gender in Woman: The Feminist Avant-garde of the 1970s, a collaboration with Austrian electricity company Sammlung Verbund, which specialises in feminist and public space art from the 1970s. Bozar repeats the successful partnership in the event’s central exhibition Open Space/Secret Places.

Curator Gabrielle Schor selected works by 27 artists, who each employ varying techniques to explore people and space. Many of them are in-depth and highly personal works that blur the lines between contemporary art and architecture.

They are divided into four categories: Historic, which records changing landscapes and memory; Psychological, confronting individual personal fears and aspirations; Spaces in Between, signifying an absence of human beings; and Creating Spaces, sitespecific installations.

In the historical group, German conceptual art duo Bernd and Hilla Becher show their rigorous study of industrial architecture in single images of gas tanks, each one photographed from the same angle, lending the soaring structures a sculptural quality.

In the psychology section, Brazilian Ernesto Neto’s installation is a disturbing interpretation of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious. In a tribute to Freud and Vienna, Neto has created two cubes out of mosquito net material, one positioned within the other and connected via lycra tubes.

In the cage-like interior, a model rocking chair sits atop a stack of books, adorned by a cloth figure, similarly connected to the cube via tubes. Stones lie scattered on the floor, apparently taken from

© Joachim Koester/Sammlung Verbund Collection/Galerie Jan Mot Brussels

Portrait of Noble Igwe from Iké Udé’s series The 10, part of Dey Your Lane!, and Joachim Koester’s “The Kant Walks, 2003-2004”, part of Open Space/Secret Places

the Sigmund Freud Park in Vienna.

The extensive show raises questions about how people live together in cities, a burning issue in the biennial’s second flagship exhibition, Dey Your Lane! Lagos Variations. It is a contemporary snapshot of the energetic Nigerian capital, currently undergoing a population explosion.

After the stark vision of urban spaces, this exhibition is initially an onslaught on the senses: Colourful images hang from the

ceiling like banners, while prints of photos are pasted to the walls, of equally larger-than-life scenes.

For curator Azu Nwagbogu, the show illustrates the energy of Lagos and explores “the real concern for public space versus the space reserved for the privileged”.

The title of the exhibition is an expression that translates as

Until 4 September

“mind your own business”, an example of the notion of individuality that equally characterises the city and economic hub.

It has stimulated creative energy in fields other than art, such as music, fashion and film. A total of 24 African and international artists show the multiple facets of the city.

Among other exhibitions under the Summer of Photography umbrella at Bozar, Vincen Beeckman: The Gang is a result of the Flemish photographer’s descent on unlikely places in urban Brussels with a “gang” of amateur photographers.

Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai signs off a series on the 1995 death of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold. It is also the subject of his latest film, Rabin, the Last Day. Ghent-based Dutch artist Bart Lodewijks, meanwhile, occupies public space, armed only with sticks of chalk. In 2015, he created large-scale drawings on the roofs of Bozar and Strombeek Cultural Centre. The only trace left of them are photographs by Dirk Pauwels, which are on display along with a mural by Lodewijks.

On the roof of Bozar now is “Lighthouse for Lampedusa”, an installation by German Thomas Kilpper.

The symbolic seven-metre makeshift structure is made from the debris of refugees’ vessels as they disembarked on European shores.

It serves as a reminder that, for many, the search for a new place or territory is also a story of survival. Kilpper hopes to eventually construct a real working lighthouse on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Other notable Summer of Photography exhibitions include The Suffering of Light, a retrospective of US photographer Alex Webb’s work at Le Botanique. A member of the prestigious Magnum agency, he questions the notion of borders in dramatic, colourful images of Mexico, Haiti, Caribbean and Latin America.

In (Velo)cities at De Markten, an examination of time and motion in urban spaces provides a vision of the future of cities, with works

by Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Polish artists.

Summer of Photography also offers a programme of activities, including concerts, talks and guided tours. On Thursdays, exhibitions are open until 21.00. End the evening atop Bozar’s roof bar and enjoy your favourite tipple while admiring a panoramic view of the city.

Bozar and other venues Brussels

Antwerp seniors’ dreams fulfilled A dream came true for 25 seniors in Antwerp last week, who were provided with a hot-air balloon ride thanks to Zorgbedrijf Antwerpen, an umbrella organisation for care centres and home help.

It issued an invitation last year to everyone over the age of 65 living in Antwerp to send in their lifelong dreams.

Three of the submissions to Mijn Droom (My Dream) were selected. A balloon ride was the first, and it will be followed by two more dreams: two women in their 70s asked to be extras in the TV soap Thuis, and another 70-something gets to take part in a fashion show. ZBA will be launching a second edition of Mijn Droom in the autumn.

Brussels Philharmonic performs score for High-Rise Brussels Philharmonic has provided the soundtrack for the movie High-Rise, a dystopian satire about a 1970s insular community living inside a London high-rise building where the higher you live, the better off you are. The film is based on the novel by the late British author JG Ballard. The philharmonic recorded the score for the film by British director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers) at Galaxy Studios in Mol last year. The score was written by British composer Clint Mansell, known for his awardwinning work on Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream.

The soundtrack is available to purchase, and the film is showing now across Belgium.

Cycle across Grand Canyon at Technopolis Hands-on science centre Technopolis in Mechelen has a new summer attraction called Canyon Ride, which simulates a bike ride on a cable spanning the Grand Canyon. Developed by 3D and virtual reality firm Nanpixel of Roeselare, Canyon Ride extends the centre’s current installation that allows visitors to ride a bike on a cable five metres above the ground.

The new attraction sees visitors putting on the Oculus Rift, a virtual-reality headset, and riding a stationary recumbent bike that gives the impression of riding on a cable miles above the famous canyon. Thunder and lightning, birds and falling rocks challenging the user, who is urged to finish the ride within two minutes.

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\ ARTS

A chorus line

Scala, the choir that became famous for covering rock songs, celebrates 20 years Christophe Verbiest More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu

The all-female choir Scala, launched by two brothers from Aarschot, is celebrating a landmark anniversary with a major tour and a new album of covers.

“I

’ve only ever failed one exam in my life: choral conducting,” Stijn Kolacny says. With his brother Steven he’s the driving force behind Scala, the all-female choir that’s celebrating its 20th anniversary with a tour and a new CD. Steven plays piano, Stijn is the conductor.

“For years, I didn’t find it funny. Now I can live with it,” he says with a smile. “I must admit, I have an unconventional approach. It’s not how you should do it – at least not according to the rules of classical choral conducting.”

But then again, Scala is not your conventional choir. In 1996, Stijn and Steven, then respectively 20 and 26 years old, decided to start a youth choir. From Aarschot, Flemish Brabant, they were playing as Pianoduo Kolacny, having recorded several CDs of music by the likes of Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert.

“We trained for six to eight hours a day. It was a solitary activity,” Stijn recalls. “At first, Scala was a hobby for the weekends. Musically, we took it very seriously, but it also had to be fun. In those early years, Scala was a cross between a choir and a youth movement.”

He vividly remembers those days. “In the first rehearsals, I played piano while Steven was conducting. But after three weeks, we switched places. Technically we were on the same level, but Steven is a better accompanist, without giving up his individuality. His piano playing is an essential part of Scala.

If you look for copycats online – and there are plenty of them – you’ll notice they try to imitate not only the singing but also Steven’s playing. Of course, it’s never the real deal.”

Stijn knows exactly when Scala gained momentum: the 2000 edition of the Flemish Choir of the Year competition. Scala won the final, which was broadcast live on television.

Subsequently, they recorded their debut, a Christmas album, and by the end of that year they had 20 shows planned.

“Apart from a few concerts we’d organised ourselves, we had no experience with playing live,” says Stijn. “Logistically, we weren’t ready to go on tour. Mobile phones and the internet weren’t widespread at the time. More than once we would be impatiently waiting in the bus to leave for a gig, and we had no idea if the singers were going to show up.”

The identity-defining change happened in

Stijn Kolacny conducting Scala in Montreal

2001. That’s when the choir started performing contemporary pop songs. “It was Steven’s idea, and honestly, I was vehemently opposed to it,” Stijn recalls. “I feared that we would lose our specialised, classical audience and wouldn’t be able to tap into a new one.”

He changed his mind during the final of the Choir of the Year in Vancouver, BC. Steven had pushed “I Think I’m Paranoid” by Garbage on to the set list. “The jury hated it and placed us last. But the concert hall – filled with 2,000 people, mostly young singers from the other choirs – went completely wild for it.”

of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. But last year Cobain’s daughter asked us if that version could be used in a documentary about her father.”

Since their version of Radiohead’s “Creep” was used in the trailer of The Social Network six years ago, Scala have become a household name in Hollywood, featuring on the soundtrack of more than 40 films and television series.

But long before that American breakthrough, Flanders had embraced Scala, with countries like France and Germany quickly follow-

The pier has survived worse and will likely weather many more storms Flanders fell for Scala in 2002, after their second album, On the Rocks, with songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Creep” and “Every Breath You Take”. Whereas Pianoduo Kolacny’s music was played on classical radio station Klara, now they were featuring on the playlists of Studio Brussel.

“There was a hype, with all the pros and cons that come with that,” says Stijn. “We divided people. If you liked us, you loved us; if you didn’t, you hated us. ‘Kurt Cobain would turn in his grave,’ people told us about our version

ing suit. “That’s the basis for the longevity of our success,” Stijn says. “Thanks to the many concerts abroad, we’ve been able to keep developing live.”

That’s essential, he continues, “since we’re first and foremost a live band. If you want to understand us, you really have to see us on stage. Scala is more than just music. We have a big light and video show, and we’re not a static choir. The movements of the singers are choreographed. All this heightens our characteristic expressive sound.”

More new albums this week Ignatz The Drain • Kraak A voice devoid of all hope drives an irrevocable despair through the music of Ignatz, the alter ego of Bram Devens. It comes as no surprise that Ignatz’s new album is once again an exercise in glumness. Still, it’s no simple repeat of the past. The lo-fi folk songs are more fleshed out than ever, stripped of all possible frills. When Ignatz

\ 14

is howling at the moon, it’s very difficult not to be moved in every fibre of your being. \ ignatz.be

Steffie Van Cauter Honger • self-released Musical bric-a-brac, that’s how Steffie Van Cauter describes her music. Sorrowful accordion, stumbling percussion, other-

worldly sounds and a highly recognisable voice characterise Honger (Hunger) by this jack-of-all-trades: she’s a visual artist, theatre performer, animator and now surprises with this challenging and inventive album. She sings in French, German and Dutch, or, more accurately, a dialect that reveals her roots in the Waasland (in the northeast of East Flanders). One to discover! \ steffievancauter.be

During those first years of the last decade, Scala stopped being a youth choir. Now they have 150 singers, all women aged 16 or older.

To be clear: They don’t perform with 150 singers. The choir tours year round, at home and abroad. Normally there are 12 to 16 of them on stage, with Stijn responsible for the selection of singers.

“It’s based on musical and practical elements,” he explains. “I have to balance the different type of voices. Is a person free to tour three weeks in a row? If we go to South Korea for a second time, I’ll opt for different singers than the first time. Things like that.”

There is no maximum age to sing with Scala.

“As long as they’re committed, they can continue. When people leave, it’s generally because their lives change and there isn’t enough room in it for Scala anymore.”

They find new members during an annual audition or in their youth choirs. Indeed, the brothers haven’t forgotten the youngsters.

“We lead a number of children and youth choirs, with some 150 members in all. It’s like a training centre. The way we work can be compared to a football club, with youth teams and a first team. Some of them move from the youth teams to the adult one.”

FC Scala in the Champions League? Who knows.

Scala’s new album, Solstice, is out now; the choir are on tour in Flanders and Germany from 7 August

\ AGENDA

july 13, 2016

Hogwarts ’n’ all

Harry Potter: The Exhibition Until 11 September

T

he film series may be over, but Harry Potter continues to cast his spell. A new exhibition in Brussels gives fans of the boy wizard an up-close-andpersonal look at his world.

Harry Potter: The Exhibition is a showcase of the artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating the props and costumes that appeared throughout the movies. Following stops in cities from Sydney to Seattle to Singapore, the touring show arrives in Brussels just in time for the summer holidays.

With hundreds of props from the movies, there’s plenty to titillate fans with a pining for Hogwarts: The exhibition displays items includ-

Brussels Expo

expoharrypotter.be

ing Harry’s original wand and glasses, the Marauder’s Map, the Golden Snitch, Gryffindor school uniforms and costumes worn at the Yule Ball. That’s before you get to the interactive exhibits, offering a chance to toss a Quaffle or uproot a Mandrake.

So far, about 3.5 million fans have visited the touring exhibition that began in 2009 in Chicago. The creators were given exclusive access to the movie studios during the shoots and were able to copy props, costumes and sets.

More than 100,000 advance tickets have already been sold for fans in Brussels who want to check out the costumes and artefacts, enter the

Kortrijk

Quidditch arena, tour Hagrid’s hut (pictured), encounter Buckbeak the hippogriff and look into the many eyes of a giant acromantula spider.

Actors James and Oliver Phelps, who played identical twins Fred and George Weasley in the films,

Gentse Feesten

Grey Lotus

Now in its 173rd edition, this festival is the most anticipated annual event in Ghent – possibly even all of Flanders. For a fortnight the streets of the historic city centre come alive with music, street theatre, comedy, exhibitions, food, drink and nonstop revelry.

Several open-air stages accommodate national and international

gentsefeesten.be

music stars while every street corner serves as a stage for local performers. Every year the largely free festival welcomes over one million visitors. This year’s musical highlights include an open-air concert by Flemish blues veteran Roland Van Campenhout and daily performances by neoclassical duo Pigeon. \ Georgio Valentino

Bal National 2016: Annual summer party on Vossenplein, featuring Filip Jordens’ tribute to Jacques Brel, concerts by Les Vedettes and Kate Ryan, among others, and a rocking DJ set by Daddy K. 20 July 19.00-2.00, Vossenplein

FAMILY

CONCERT

15-24 July

Brussels

\ balnational.be

FESTIVAL Across Ghent

EVENT

16 July, 20.00 Dutch experimental folk group Grey Lotus have grown in size and stature since forming in 2008. What was once a studio project comprised of vocalist Joost Verhagen and multi-instrumentalist Daan Arisz has evolved into Haarlem’s most adventurous live band, a robust sextet starring

were on hand for the opening last month, where they hailed the local Potter fans. “We were here for one of the film premieres, and they were by far the loudest we had ever heard,” said James (or Oliver). \ Leo Cendrowicz

Yoga workshop: The workshop 10,000 luchtballonnen for kids (4-6) is a colourful yoga adventure, introducing little ones to deep breathing, relaxation and massage while leaving plenty of room for creativity and fun. 14 July 9.30-12.00, Budafabriek, Dam 2 \ kortrijk.be

FILM Zeebrugge Papa Jos, Antwerp the cream of the crop of the local music scene. With the recording of a third album in full swing, Grey Lotus make a rare live appearance south of the border to perform at Antwerp art cafe Papa Jos. The venue is a hidden gem frequented by students and local artists. Free entry. \ GV

Filmophetstrand: Free open-air cinema at the beach, including two children’s films in the afternoon and one featured film in the evening. Thursdays until 25 August, Zeebrugge beach, Zeedijk \ bruggeplus.be

MARKET Antwerp Feestmarkt Antwerpen: Cosy evening market behind the yacht harbour, with more than 50 stands selling a diverse range of items, from clothing and jewellery to leatherware and pet supplies.

15 July 16.00-21.00, Antwerpen Jachthaven (behind the MAS Museum) \ antwerpsemarkten.be

CONCERT

FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL

Bar A Muze

Recyclart Holidays

14 July to 21 August M Museum’s rooftop summer bar is officially open for business. The panoramic pop-up was inaugurated four years ago and has since become an annual event. Visitors are invited to sip a refreshing cocktail and eat a tasty snack while watching the sun set over the city centre. Then the party really starts. The programme is brimming with nightly entertainment, from concerts by the likes of country artist Marjan Debaene and New Age singer Liesa Van der Aa to talks by artists exhibiting downstairs, namely photographer and documentary filmmaker Lieve Blancquaert. \ GV

M Museum, Leuven baramuze.be

Until 5 August Brussels cultural centre Recyclart was born in 2000 from a combination of city initiative and European funding. Its objective: to turn the disused Brussel-Kapellekerk rail station into a grassroots urban arts centre. Recyclart’s summer programme unfolds every Thursday and Friday for six weeks. In addition to concerts and other performances, there are barbecues, bread-baking workshops, film screenings and interactive neighbourhood walks as well as a communal plant garden, a DIY market and a massive temporary scaffolding installation titled “Dear Pigs”. And it’s all for free.

Some events require online registration. \ GV

Brussels

Recyclart, Brussels recyclart.be

get tic

kets n ow

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals: The American singer-songwriter and multiinstrumentalist known for his mix of blues, folk, soul, rock, reggae and social activism presents the Call It What It Is Tour, named after the long-awaited album that reunites the band after its first album nine years ago. 18 October 20.00, Vorst Nationaal, Victor Rousseaulaan 208 \ vorst-nationaal.be

Turdus Philomelos: Belgian band offering a combination of rural folk chamber music and accordion-heavy, klezmer-type arrangements on violin, melodica, sax, bass and drums, resulting in a dreamy, southern sound, melancholic yet melodic. 16 July 16.00, Beursplein \ summer.brussels.be

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\ BACKPAGE

july 13, 2016

Talking Dutch

VoiceS of flanders today

Big trouble in Mini Europe Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

minieurope.com

T

he shock decision by the British people to leave the EU has even caused a minor ripple in Mini Europe, the Brussels theme park where landmark European buildings are created in miniature.

De Big Ben, hoort die nog wel thuis in Mini-Europa – Does Big Ben still belong in Mini Europe, nu Groot-Brittannië voor een Brexit stemde? – now that Great Britain has voted for a Brexit? asked De Standaard.

Well, it seems we don’t need to panic just yet, according to Thierry Meeus, director of Mini Europe. Als ik het goed heb – If I understand correctly, zit Groot-Brittannië op dit moment nog in de Europese Unie – Great Britain is still a member of the European Union en zal dat nog zeker twee jaar duren – and will definitely remain so for two more years.

Er moeten nog beslissingen worden genomen – There are decisions that still have to be made, en wie weet – and who knows? Misschien gaan ze wel nooit weg – Maybe they’ll never leave.

But if the UK does go, it’s not just the EU that will shrink.

Several models will have to be removed from Mini Europe, Meeus said. We hebben de Houses of Parliament – We have the Houses of Parliament, die net gerestaureerd zijn – which have just been renovated. We hebben de Big Ben, uiteraard – We have Big Ben, of course.

Er is ook Stratford-upon-Avon met de huizen van Shakespeare – There’s also Stratford-upon-Avon with Shakespeare’s houses, en er is het kasteel van Dover – and there’s Dover Castle.

They will all have to go, Meeus insists, along with a miniature British intercity train and – the latest attraction – a miniature Brexit demonstration in front of the Houses of Parliament.

In response to: Brussels residents on a mission to clean the streets Josepha Guillaume: Molenbeek? Yes, Molenbeek!

In response to: Talking Dutch: Big trouble in Mini Europe Frédéric Fatoux: Storm in a (Belgian) tea cup.

In response to: Smoking ban by August in Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael Krisztina Fehér: Finally!

The models are safe for the moment, though, he said.

Voorlopig gaan we alle maquettes houden – For the time being we are going to keep all the models, net als de Brexit-animatie – along with the Brexit demonstration die we hadden opgezet in de aanloop naar het referendum – which we created during the referendum.

But what if the British really do Brexit? Een mogelijkheid is een soort van hek plaatsen – one possibility is to put up a sort of fence, Meeus explains. Let op, nu verlaat u de Europese Unie – Watch out, you are now leaving the European Union. En dan moeten we daar uitleg bij geven – And then we’d have to explain. Dit was een vroeger lid – This was once a member maar nu niet meer – but not any longer.

Misschien kunnen wij in een tentoonstelling uitleggen waarom de Britten zo gestemd hebben – Maybe we could organise an exhibition that would explain why the British voted the way they did. En de vraag stellen – And ask was dat nu een goed idee of niet? – was that really a good idea?

That’s a very big question for a small theme park.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Pete Denton @PeteKook So Ghent is pretty stunning.

Peter Simmons @Mr_Peteroy I have a few friends in Antwerp, hope they’re still friends anyway!

Midé @MidePoetry Leuven, it’s been good! Can’t believe my year abroad is over.

Thank you for being my home.

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the last word A man’s gotta do

Whole lotta rockin’

“People only know me one way.

Every time I step outside I’m dressed the same – waistcoat, belt, bootlace tie, hat. Even for a funeral. I wouldn’t know how to be any different.”

“My parents took me everywhere.

Having a baby is no reason to stay at home.”

Freddy Mary is better known as the Cowboy from Dilbeek

Credit war “Until we have our own, we can borrow that sort of bomb from neighbouring countries. When ours are delivered, we can simply pay them back.”

© Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga

Bart Rooms, father of ten-month-old Victor, is one of a growing number of parents taking their offspring along to Flanders’ summer festivals

Wedding bells “Just married!”

Jazz pianist and composer Jef Neve married his partner Andy Dhondt in Ghent at the weekend

The Belgian Air Force has borrowed precision bombs from other allies for use in Iraq, while waiting for a delivery due in late 2017

ON PARADE Young participants in the Ommegang historical parade in the centre of Brussels. More than 1,400 performers gathered on the Grote Markt to relive the 1549 procession of Charles V through the city

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